Justice Mosk: 35 and Counting

On Sunday, Justice Stanley Mosk will break the record for longevity on the California Supreme Court, with more than 35 years on the bench. Appointed in 1964 by Gov. Pat Brown, he will surpass the tenure of Justice John W. Shenk, a member of the high court from 1924 to 1959.

Longevity alone is slight cause for commendation, but Mosk has served California not only with time but with distinction. Or, as one legal scholar recently noted with a modicum of hyperbole, “Mosk has been . . . one of the most influential members in the history of one of the most influential tribunals in the Western world.”

As a member of the court’s liberal majority during the 1960s and 1970s, and more recently as the court swung right and then back toward the center, Mosk remained able to marshal his colleagues on decisions that profoundly influenced not only California law but that in other states.

Among his many landmark opinions: extending state environmental law to private developments and free-speech rights to shopping centers; barring improperly obtained confessions in criminal cases; prohibiting the use of racially based preemptory challenges to remove prospective jurors; allowing victims of the anti-miscarriage drug DES, which caused cancer in daughters of women who took it, to sue all manufacturers for damages when the specific provider of the drug to which they were exposed was unknown.

Mosk came to the court after a distinguished career that included 16 years on the Los Angeles Superior Court and a term as state attorney general, during which he argued the landmark Colorado River water case for California before the U.S. Supreme Court in 1963.

Now 87, Mosk still pulls his weight; last term (1998-99) he wrote 17 lead decisions, more than most of his colleagues. Californians are fortunate that this strong defender of civil rights, civil liberties and press freedom has proved to have such staying power.